New Infants in Need of Love and Support
Ensuring the health and safety of infants and children is at the heart of IGF. Through our child protection and infant nutrition programs, we provide direct interventions to improve the outcomes of infants and children at risk.
Over the past 2 months we have continued to provide care and nutritional support to 8 infants, and received 3 new additions.
Baby Hope was only 5 weeks old when she came to us at the end of September. Her teenage mother died during surgery at a local hospital. Baby Hope is being looked after by her aunt at home, and is receiving nutritional support from IGF.
Baby Jeremiah was abandoned by his mother in mid-October. He was 6 months old. While the police continue to search for his mother, Baby Jeremiah is receiving nutritional support and care from IGF.
Baby Ketty came to us at the end of October. At only 1 week old she already faces a life without her mother. Birth-related complications took her life 2 days after delivering a healthy baby girl. Baby Ketty is safe and healthy, and is currently being looked after by a relative with support from our nurses and the wonderful house mothers at IGF.
These interventions are made possible through the partnerships we have with local authorities such as the police and the Child Protection Unit in Kitgum, and from the support of donors in Australia.
Your continued support enables us to provide nutritional supplements, bedding and clothing, medical care, and pay house mothers and carers who look after the infants on-site at IGF.
Farming Updates
As we move into the dry season in Northern Uganda (December to February), the region has already received below-average rainfall over the last few months.
Although the dry spell hasn’t been kind to the farmers who planted crops in the last season, we are using it to complete the major land clearance and constructions activities, while the road is accessible for large vehicles.
Fabrication of tanks stands is ongoing in Gulu, the major ‘city’ in northern Uganda. Once the stands are complete the water tanks will be installed at the farm to allow water collection and future irrigation.
In the past week, 18 piglets were produced by two mothers in our small piggery in Kitgum. One of the piglets died, but the remaining 17 are in good condition. Four more mothers are due to deliver in the next couple of weeks.
Its going to be a busy December to March at IGF’s Lapit Farm, as we prepare for planting the maize crop in the first planting season of 2022.
Further information of IGF’s farming project can be found here.
Mighty Fire transforming the Community
Geoffrey wakes up each more before the sun, so that he can ‘Wake up with the Lord’. You can find him throughout the day carrying around his radio, still listening to the programs broadcast by IGF’s Mighty Fire FM radio station. According to Gerald who is currently Mighty Fire’s Radio Manager, Geoffrey is one of the top listeners and has become well-known to the radio team.
Geoffrey is 35 years old and married with 5 children. He is a pheasant farmer and earns a very low income, but strives to provide for his family. He told us that his favourite programs on Mighty Fire radio are Oruu Ki Rwot (Waking up in the Lord) from 5am-6am and Apwoyo Yele (The Evening Drive) from 5pm-9pm.
Geoffrey loves what he calls the ‘explosive preaching, sharing, and prayers for the needy in the early morning’, from 5-6am. He said that he thinks the sharing of the word and praying for the sick as the most important session. This program changed not only his life but that of his family members too. As a result of this program, the whole family is born-again and fellowship has been established at home, every Sunday prayers are conducted under a tree. As he puts it, they have established a church under a Tamarind tree named Mighty Fire. Through this early morning program his relationship with God has grown stronger and he is now preaching the word to his community.
Geoffrey told us that his older brother Churchill has been struggling with substance abuse for many years and at one point a sickness was threatening his life and left him paralized for 5 years. Churchill started listening to the morning preaching on Mighty Fire and came to know God. He attributes this to transforming his life. After multiple visits to various hospitals throughout Uganda his condition continued to deteriorate. Before his last surgery Churchill called into the morning show and asked the pastors to pray for him. The operation was successful and he has been healed.Since then, Churchill has stopped drinking alcohol and his entire household are now serving God.
Alcoholism and domestic violence continue to be an issue in the community where Geoffrey and Churchill live, but as they share their stories and encourage their neighbours to seek God, they tell us that things are improving.
